Hay Time: The Biggest Chore of Summer

If you look into my barn right now, you’ll see bales and bales of hay stacked almost to the ceiling. The small loft is filled too, and the sweet smell of new hay rests in the air like a light perfume. I always rest a little easier when I see the stables filled with hay. No matter how hot and humid it might be right now, horse people have to plan for the cold. This is our time to make sure our beloved horses will be warm and well fed when winter arrives. 

Usually a barn full of hay at Amazing Grace Stables means my brothers and I (plus some help at times!) have spent some scorching hot days cutting, raking, baling, and loading 400 - 800 small square bales and then restacking all of those into barns. It’s hard, physically demanding, and time-consuming work, but when hay prices are up, it makes good hay accessible. 

This year, though, looked a little different for us. With haying equipment down, schedules not lining up, and health issues in our family, we realized that the prime time (June and July) for haying was going to pass us by. Hay prices haven’t been through the roof this year, so we decided that buying hay would be our best option. 

Walk with me through the process of what buying hay looks like for us and find tips and info to use - now or in the future!

Choosing The Hay

If we are what we eat, then the same is true for our horses! So the first step in buying hay is simply finding good quality hay at an affordable price. Where you get it also depends on what size hay - there are large round bales (weighing 1000 - 1500 lbs), small round bales (600 - 800 lbs), large square bales (700 - 1000 lbs), and small square bales (40 - 60 lbs). Some people even sell hay cubes (20 - 30 lbs) or bundles (60 -80 lbs). I personally use small square bales and find it the best way for our horse setup. They are easy to keep under cover; they are lightweight and don’t require equipment to move. Plus, the quality seems to be better than the large sizes.

When searching, always ask if it’s ‘horse quality’. Lots of hay on the market is meant for cattle and does not have enough nutrients for equines. It needs to be hay cut the very same season you’re buying - preferably within the month. You definitely do not want year-old hay or hay that has been rained on. Good hay will have been cut and baled during hot, dry weather, reducing the chance of mold within the bales. Know how many bales you are going to need. It’s roughly about 100 bales per horse, but that can vary a lot depending on where you live, how much grain is fed, and how much grazing is available. You also need to account for losing some bales to spoilage so you don’t have to worry about running short. Too much is better than too little!

So that means we are looking for enough of this season’s horse-quality, small squares within a reasonable driving distance from the stables.

I was very blessed to find a place under an hour away that met this criteria in early July. And because we were able to come while they were baling, they gave us $0.50 off a bale. And when you’re buying a larger quantity of bales, that really helps!

Preparing The Barn 

Now it’s time to prepare our barn for hay. First, we get rid of all the old, leftover hay from last year's supply. Firstly, set aside any remaining hay bales that are still in good shape; you’ll need these later. Since you never want to store your hay directly on the ground, you’ll have wood pallets (or something similar) across the floor of your hay storage. Little bits of hay pieces and dust will fall, piling up between and beneath the boards. So each pallet will need to be removed and cleaned, while the entire ground underneath them is being fully scraped. This can take a while, but is a necessary part of the process. If you are getting a winter’s worth of hay for the first time, you’ll still want to make sure the ground is clean before laying down your wood pallets. (You can often find stores willing to give these away if you don’t have any.) Once you are finished with cleaning out the old, it’s time to bring in the new!

Picking Up and Unloading

Unless you’re able to get your hay delivered (which is an expensive but wonderful option), you’ll need a good heavy-duty truck and trailer. If you don’t own one, you can often rent or borrow one for the task. Keep in mind you might have to make multiple trips, depending on the length of your trailer. Don’t forget to calculate this cost, along with the price of fuel, into your expenses. Some hay places are able to load your trailer with machinery or will come help you stack the hay on your trailer. The bales need to be stacked straight and tightly on the trailer, plus strapped down correctly - you do not want to lose some of this valuable load while driving home! 

Back at the barn, the biggest task awaits: stacking it in the barn. Back your trailer as close to where you’re stacking it as possible. A few people have plenty of space and spread their hay out to stack it comfortably low. But if you’re like me - maximizing every inch of barn space as possible - you’ll have to stack it tight and high. This is where having tall, strong, and willing

brothers to help me is a tremendous blessing! It usually takes us all day, counting cleaning, transport, and stacking, if we divide and conquer. (Me cleaning the barn, my brothers hauling and all of us unloading.) 

Note: Hay turns out the best when it’s cut and baled during the super hot days of summer. Which means, if you’re getting your hay fresh, 90% of the time you’ll be doing this in the heat. So make sure to stay hydrated and take breaks as needed!

Adjusting and Keeping Track

Hooray! We now have our supply of hay ready, so when the heat loses its grip and winter steps boldly onto the scene, we are prepared. But the work of hay doesn’t stop here. If you feed a little hay year-round as we often do, now we need to slowly switch our horses from the old hay to the new. This should be done over a 2-3 week period to give their digestive tract plenty of time to adjust to the change. Start with just the old hay, then add small amounts of the new hay day by day until they are fully transferred. Doing it too quickly can cause many serious issues, worst of all colic. By making the change slowly, you are giving your horse's sensitive gut microbiome the best chance to settle. I like to also give probiotics and digestive supplements during the adjustment time for even better success and my peace of mind.

Another important step to feeding hay is always knowing how much you have available. At Amazing Grace Stables, we do this with a clicker counter that is kept hanging up by the hay. Each time we cut open a bale, we 'click it in' to keep a running tally of how many bales we've used. This real-time information helps us know if we're on track to make it easily through the winter or if we're using more bales than anticipated. I highly recommend it.

While hay time is definitely a huge undertaking, it is incredibly reassuring to know that even in the midst of summer, we are ready for winter. Stepping into the barn to see our hay supply is a blessing. With these tips that we've learned over the years, we go into hay season confidently and come out prepared!